Independent phone and laptop makers are redesigning products, checking incoming chips for counterfeit or refurbished parts and adjusting prices as a memory shortage is expected to persist through 2027. Executives at three companies said availability, rather than price, has become the binding constraint. Fairphone Chief Executive Raymond van Eck said, "If you don't have allocation, you're out of the game anyhow." SK Hynix's CEO said in July that 2027 could be "the worst year in the industry's history from the supply perspective," with demand exceeding capacity beyond 2030. Counterpoint Research forecasts smartphone shipments will fall 13.9% this year to 1.08 billion units, the steepest annual decline on record, as memory costs make entry-level phones uneconomical to produce. The rally in memory prices has slowed, but the shortage has not: TrendForce expects conventional DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) contract prices to rise 13%-18% this quarter, compared with 93%-98% in the first quarter. Finnish handset maker Jolla said its combined storage and DRAM package reached a peak at the end of March and has remained there, contrary to forecasts that it would double by autumn. Jolla Chief Executive Sami Pienimäki expects supply to normalize only from 2028. Framework Chief Executive Nirav Patel said the scale of the mismatch became clear late last year, prompting companies to secure as much supply and inventory as quickly as possible and deepening the shortage. Framework places non-cancellable orders well ahead of time without knowing the final price, delivery timing or volume. Jolla developed two motherboard variants that allow it to substitute the combined memory package with separate chips, while Framework's modular design lets customers install memory salvaged from older machines. Jolla stress-tests samples from every batch to verify that chips are new rather than refurbished parts sold as first-hand. Memory can represent almost 60% of the bill of materials for handsets priced around $400, van Eck said. Framework reprices products as costs arrive, Jolla added a paid memory upgrade, and Fairphone has not raised prices.